A light-sensitive material comprising a support and a light-sensitive layer containing silver halide, a reducing agent and a polymerizable compound are used in an image-forming method. The image forming method comprises image-wise exposing to light the light-sensitive material to form a latent image of silver halide, and developing the light-sensitive material to imagewise polymerize the polymerizable compound.
Examples of the image forming method are described in Japanese Patent Publications No. 45(1970)-11149 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,275), No. 47-(1972) 20741 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,667) and No. 49(1974) 10697, and Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 57(1982) 138632, No. 57(1982) 142638, No. 57-(1982) 176033, No. 57(1982)-211146 (corresponding to U.S. Patent No. 4,557,997), No. 58(1983)-107529 (corresponding to U.S. Patent No. 4,560,637), No. 58(1983) 121031 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,450) and No. 58(1983) 169143. In the image forming method disclosed in the above.mentioned publications, when the exposed silver halide is developed using a developing solution, the polymerizable compound is induced to polymerize in the presence of a reducing agent to form a polymer image. Thus, this method requires a wet development process using a developing solution. There. fore, the process takes a relatively long time.
An improved image forming method employing a dry pro. cess is described in Japanese Patent Provisional Publica. tions No. 61(1986)-69062 and No. 61(1986)-73145 (the con. tents of both publications are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,676 and European Patent Provisional Publication No. 0174634A2). In this image forming method, a recording material (light-sensitive material) comprising a light.sen. sitive layer containing a light-sensitive silver salt (silver halide), a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound and a binder provided on a support is imagewise exposed to light to form a latent image, and then the material is heated to polymerize within the area where the latent image of the silver halide has been formed.
In the above.mentioned light-sensitive material, the reducing agent has a function of reducing the silver halide and/or a function of accelerating polymerization of the polymerizable compound. Examples of the reducing agents include hydroquinones, catechols, p.aminophenols, p-phenylenediamines, 3-pyrazolidones, 3-aminopyrazoles, 4-amino-5-pyrazolones, 5-aminouracils, 4,5-dihydroxy-6-aminopyrimidines, reductones, aminoreductones, o- or p-sulfonamidophenols, o or p-sulfonamidonaphthols, 2-sulfonamidoindanones, 4-sulfonamido-5-pyrazolones, 3-sul fonamidoindoles, sulfonamidopyrazolobenzimidazoles, sulfon amidopyrazolotriazoles, p-sulfonamidoketones and hydrazine derivatives. Hydrazine derivatives are particularly pre ferred, since the light-sensitive material using a hydrazine derivative as the reducing agent has a high sen. sitivity and gives a clear image having a high contrast.
Various hydrazine derivatives have been proposed, and described in Japanese Patent Provisional Publications No. 61(1986) 183640, No. 61(1986)-188535, No. 61(1986)-228441 (the contents of these three publications are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 827,702), No. 62(1987)-86354 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,792,514), No. 62(1987)-86355, No. 62(1987)-264041 (the contents of both publications are described in U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 917,755 and European Patent Provisional Publication No. 0219087A2), No. 62(1987) 198849 (corresponding to U.S. Patent No. 4,735,884 and European Patent Provisional Publi cation No. 0235751A2) and No. 62(1987) 206540 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,531).